Defamation and veto, a special target for fleeing sovereign rulers

When you reach the finish line separated by an hour, with leg cramps, while the others are already rocking champagne, it’s clear that something in the running of the race isn’t working out. Tactics or condition, lack of strategy or talent. It is certainly never the fault of bad luck, and even the center-right case in these municipalities is no exception.

The Morrissey and Fidanza scandals resulted in the feeling that the poor results of the moderate alliance were the result of a turbulent selection of candidates, out of time, and stranded between rancor and crossed vexation and personal hatred especially between the two Sovereign Spirits. From the alliance, in a fratricidal struggle for relative primacy.

Some facts: Raggi reappeared in August 2020, Kalinda in October, Sala in December; Michetti, Bernardo and Maresca only in June this year, and Battistini in Bologna even in July. But in politics as in life, the more time passes, the narrower the range of options and the multiplication of foreclosures. From month to month, the positions of Forza Italia, Fdi and Lega tightened, eliminating potential candidates in a chain for store logic. Only in Milan did we pass from Rasia to Albertini, who retired by surprise. Lupe flashed, passed like de Montaigne’s comet and finally Bernardo appeared, caught in the midst of a tense and unpleasant election campaign of separate rallies, whispered sarcastic comments and missed meetings. Six months, not to think of the best name, but to withhold the names of others, as happened in Bologna. The result? Worn Alliance, Negative Choices, 1st Winning Round Left at 60%. The rhetoric in Rome is a little different: Michetti here is ahead in the first round, of course, but he risks being crushed in the second by the Giallorossi’s pincers. The suspicion remains that a figure considered less closely associated with the party (Bertolaso, for example?) could have attracted even that large part of the vote that ended up in Kalinda, which, not surprisingly, has always publicly respected him.

In short, to stay in the cycling metaphor, one can imagine Meloni and Salvini escaping into a great classic. The road facilitates them, because economic crises – and the epidemic, how it was – always helped the contenders, not the administrators, in their positions. The two are spinning nicely, gaining ground, and they are all decoupled. And there, feeling safe, they began to distinguish one another, only worried about defeating their enemy comrade towards Palazzo Chigi. Favorite Salvini misses the climb, and my former socialite Meloni seems to have more, pushing each other to the side of the road. The first disagreements with the rival street demonstrations against the Conte government, on June 2, 2020. Then a series of harassment and punches, the Copasire dispute and Rai’s supervisory authority. Lots of dust to hide under a rug for a smiling photo opportunity at the last rally, or to be washed down with crocodile tears after voting. Enough to make the audience fall out of love. To steal one meter from each other, they end up being regrouped and overtaken by their pursuer, the anti-Right “Big Group”.

Today, in the process of the stage, between the exchange of accusations and the collective examination of conscience, we hope that all this will be a lesson. Because to win the Giro d’Italia of politics, a completely different spirit would be needed.